1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to athletic shoes.
2. Background Information
It is well known that basketball, volleyball, and other sports activities players often try to stay in the air for relatively long periods of time while they attempt to perform a particular action. For example, basketball players often attempt to stay or "hang" in the air for as long as possible as they try to slam-dunk a basketball into a basketball net. The amount of time a basketball player hangs in the air is commonly referred to as his or her "hang time." Hang time has become so popular that basketball players often compete with each other as to who can hang in the air the longest (i.e. the player with the longest "hang time" wins). Moreover, many great professional basketball players have become quite popular for their "hang times" (e.g. Michael Jordan of the Chicago BULLS).
While hang time has become a popular measure of a player's abilities, there has not heretofore been proposed an accurate and objective way to calculate the amount of time a player remains in the air while performing a sport related activity. Moreover, there has not heretofore been proposed a way or a device which can be used to calculate a player's hang time and which may be manufactured, marketed, and sold in consumer-appealing ways at effective price points.
The present invention solves these problems.